The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have launched their first ever AFC Academic Centre of Excellence (ACE).
The virtual initiative is aimed at developing the skill sets and expertise of the future leaders of Asian Football. In addition, the ACE reaffirms the AFC’s commitment to enhancing the capabilities of its Member and Regional Associations.
The AFC Academic Centre of Excellence will commence with the delivery of two main programmes – the AFC Football Management Certificate (FMC) and the AFC Football Management Diploma (FMD).
Both the FMC and FMD are open to all 47 AFC Member Associations (MAs) and five Regional Associations (RAs), Asian football and independent stakeholders, each designed in partnership with the AFC’s academic partner – the renowned Football Business Academy (FBA) based in Switzerland.
AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa spoke in a message to prospective participants.
“Success on-the-pitch is only guaranteed by our dedicated work off-the-pitch; and all our work off the pitch is guaranteed by the professionalism and pursuit of excellence of each individual involved in our beautiful game,” he said.
“With the launch of the AFC Academic Centre of Excellence, the AFC is committed to nurturing the future leaders of Asian football by placing a strong emphasis on interactive learning, with a vision and mission to enable football professionals to acquire the knowledge and skills relating to analysis, problem-solving, creativity and decision-making required in today’s dynamic world of football business.”
The FMC and FMD will provide a dynamic and comprehensive curriculum while nurturing football-specific skill sets and industry knowledge to enable future leaders to plan, execute and monitor the day-to-day operations in all aspects of football management.
The programmes will offer insightful modules which include the Organisation of World Football, International Sports Federations, Strategic Management, Financial Management, Income Generation, Media and Communications, Event Management, Operational Management, Human Resource Management, Child Safeguarding, Social Responsibility, Sports Law and Club Licensing.
The FMC will be held over five months, comprising five live online sessions with participants undertaking 290 hours of study across nine core modules, while the FMD will be conducted over 13 months, consisting of five live online sessions over 12 core modules held over 460 hours of study.
Australia’s Member Federations have thrown their support behind Football Australia’s ‘#VaxxedToBeBack’ initiative.
The initiative features representatives from across Australia’s large, diverse, and multicultural football family, providing amplification of Federal, State, and Territory Government COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.
Included in the video are Commonwealth Bank Matildas players Sam Kerr and Alanna Kennedy, Socceroos number one goalkeeper Mathew Ryan, former Socceroo Joel Griffiths, elite referee Kate Jacewicz and prominent Australian football personality, Stephanie Brantz.
The #VaxxedToBeBack initiative seeks to encourage members of Australia’s broad football community to share the reasons why they’ve been vaccinated as football and Australia as a whole strives to emerge from the global pandemic.
“I haven’t been back to Australia in almost two years so I am doing my part to protect myself and my family,” Kerr said in the video. Kennedy reflects that her nieces and nephews have grown so much over the past year, so she “can’t wait to be home and give them a big hug”.
Spain-based Socceroo Ryan is #VaxxedToBeBack “to help try and create a healthy and safe environment out there for all of us to be able to thrive in.” Leading match official Jacewicz, who refereed in the recent Tokyo 2020 Women’s Football Tournament, is “’#VaxxedToBeBack’ to return to the pitch for your football matches.”
While Football Australia and Member Federations respect and acknowledge that vaccination is an individual decision, the organisations support Federal, State, and Territory Government advice that mass vaccinations is Australia’s pathway out of COVID-19.
James Johnson, CEO of Football Australia, applauded the initiative in the interests of the wellbeing of our Australian football community at large.
“The safety and wellbeing of the Australian football community is paramount to Football Australia. As Australia’s most diverse and largest club-based participation sport, Australian football will continue to play its part as a responsible and good citizen, as Australia looks to reopen and recover from the devastating impacts of COVID-19,” Johnson said.
Football Australia, in partnership with Member Federations, continues to work on and plan for a variety of competitions, projects and initiatives that will underpin the growth of football as Australia emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
